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I draw my Scribbler Too creations using my mouse. Many people mention the trouble they have controlling the lines this way. There are some tricks.

1. Keep your lines short. The tendency is to draw a line from one point to another in what feels like a section. For example, take the arm in the first two drawings here. In a pen/pencil drawing, for the forearm, I would draw a line from elbow to wrist. But with a mouse you have a limited sweep, so I drew about half-way, released the button, immediately held it down again and finished the arm.

It all depends on your set-up and the size of your picture. Try to get a feel for how far you can go before your lines go wobbly, and try to stop your lines before then. You might be able to get longer lines with practice, but probably not--it's the mouse, not you.

Pause a second to evaluate before continuing. You can only erase one line, so give yourself the chance to realize that you don't like that line before you've created …

A while back I was playing around with some paper. A deadline loomed and I set this aside meaning to add to it later. I was going to do something super.

Haven't a clue what it was. Just that it was super.

Meanwhile, I forget exactly what I already did (are you sensing a theme here?). I know there is some black gesso here, and probably acrylic paint. One of these days, maybe I'll remember what I wanted to do or I'll just decide to do something else. But I don't want to be hasty, because I know what I had in mind was super. Be a shame not to do it.

You get a different look when you start alternating black (000000) and white (FFFFFF) in Scribbler Too--sort of fuzzy marbling. The lines get quite spiky, so you might want to dial down your radius somewhere around 15-20, or even less if you want actual detail.

I do most of my black first with the radius set around 30, dialing down to 7-10 for eyes or other detail. Then I switch to white and sort of blast the color around. In other words, instead of drawing steady lines, I center the pointer where I want the most white to be, and tap the mouse button. The I move to another spot, tap and keep doing this until I'm happy.

If I get too much white, I switch to black and do the tap, move process again. I may switch back and forth several times, adjusting my radius as I feel it is needed.

To get rid of solid lines around the edges, I set the color to white, move the mouse a little way from the edge and tap. I move the mouse all along the outside tapping whereever I want a less sol…

I've been playing around with squirkling again. The more I use this method of scribbling the more I appreciate what can be done with it. I decided to expand on the 15-minute art journal page I did last week and put a little more planning into a page. Not much. This page still only took about 20 minutes and most of that was because I thought a little more about where I wanted the various colors. If you are interested I put my thoughts and process below (with some photos this time).

Supplies:Sharpies-blue, purple, red, yellow (any permanent ink pen will do, but a smaller pen tip will take longer to fill in the background, and a larger pen tip might not leave enough white space)Art Journal (this is made with Clairefontain Japon Calligraphy paper. Any paper will do, but remember, if you use Sharpies, the ink will bleed through to the back, and may stain anything beneath).Liquitex Interference Violet Acrylic Paint …

So I'll mention the downside right off--they run close to $40, which is a lot for a file folder. However, besides being beautiful, you do get sturdy.

The construction is exquisite and it's solid throughout. The dividers are heavy, but flexible. It looks as though they are cardboard or some kind of paperboard, while the folder box itself is a more rigid, heavier version of the same board. Don't let the word 'cardboard' throw you, though. This is a heavy-duty item meant to last a life-time. It is built to be used, though not abused.

The illustrations are raised giving them a slight texture, pleasant to the fingers.

Even the sides are decorated.

The size is 13" x 9.5". It has the standard twelve built-in dividers and lab…

The next two weeks are going to be busy ones for me, and I’ll
be on my tablet much of the time.
Blogger and my tablet don’t like one another! What to do?
I've scheduled some art work, Scribbler Too how-tos and reviews during this time. But, I’ve also looked for sites that post regularly, and Monday
thru Friday I’ll have links to a few sites. It won’t be many, and you won’t
know what you’ll find, but it should be something interesting.
After April 10 or 11th, things should resume to
their usual pattern. Meanwhile, I’ll be
around off and on, mostly on Facebook because it works the best on my tablet. ZentangleI am the
Diva Weekly ChallengeArt Journaling
Prompts & InspirationJournal52: Art
Journaling PromptTutorialsPails of PaintComfortable
Shoes StudioGiveawayGraphic 45 Blog

This is my page for the third round of the Art Journal swap I'm in. It didn't work out as well as I hoped. I used Pilot Hi-Tec-C Maica gel pens for the watercolor look. Inka Gold is a wax-based creme in different colors and I planned on putting a very thin coat to seal the watercolor and add a bit of shimmer. But the Inka gold doesn't spread that well, so I got more color from it than anticipated. It still works. It just isn't what I was planning.

I'm going to be in and out and abouting for the next three weeks and will mostly be on my Tablet, which does not like Blogger, Twitter or Flickr!

So, I've done some pre-planned posts, some artwork, some reviews and, in lieu of my daily link list, I've posted links to sites that post regularly and usually have great content (I won't be posting on Saturday and Sunday until things are back to normal). I hope you'll check back often.

Meanwhile, I'll check in on Facebook, which my tablet hasn't argued with yet, and say hello ever so often.

I only had about 15 minutes to spare for this weeks Journal52 prompt, and my wrist was bothering me mightily, so it needed to be something I could do with my non-dominant hand.
There is a method of drawing called squirkling, which is essentially scribbling. It's often used for shading, but I knew it could also make a nice textured background. This method is quick (if you are using a big-tipped pen). It's fun--a lot like returning to finger-painting without the mess and it took me less than 15 minutes to do the page. A lot less time than it took me to write up this process, lol! (I won't go into the method of squirkling here, because there is a much better write-up than I could do, at Drawspace.)
Unfortunately, I could not get the glimmer of the interference paint to scan or photograph, so this looks rather flat on screen, while it is almost holographic in real life.
You can maybe see a touch of it in this photo. My tools:
Strathmore Aquarius II 140lb watercolor pape…

Even if you haven't started from the beginning don't hesitate to join in on weekly prompts. You can start with the current prompt or go back and start from the beginning. There are Facebook groups you can join and share your work, or you can just enjoy doing the prompts for yourself. No pressure to keep up.

Each entry was assigned a number, and True Random Generator was used to pick the winner.

The winning entry, no. 56

Hello Sandra!
Saw your Paperblanks giveaway!!! I love it!
Thanks for including my entry.
Best,
Cole
Thank you to every one who entered!. I've got another giveaway coming up in April, a cool Travel Album Logbook from Clairefontaine's new Maritime Collection, so be sure to watch for it!

Today I'm here to talk a little bit about color theory and to review J. Herbin's Bouton D'or Fountain pen ink.
I debated about whether to review this ink or not. Obviously, a bright yellow ink has limited use because it won't show up well on many papers. You might be able to highlight with it, but most fountain pen inks are going to show through the back of the page in a book. So why would you buy J. Herbin's Bouton D'or to write with? If you really like yellow, you might find a paper that is just right for it, or just use it for contrast. If you wanted to write when others were around, it would limit their ability to snoop. You might use it for art journaling where you don't always need to read what is written.
My reason for buying it? Let's talk about color theory.
One aspect of color theory claims there are three primary colors from which all other colors can be mixed. When talking about pigment, the traditional primary colors are blue,…

Journal52 is a FREE year-long online workshop. Each week a new prompt is given, and hostess Chelle Stein presents the steps she took to create her vision of the prompt. You can opt to have the prompts sent via email, join a (very active) Facebook group or Flickr group. It's all under your control-no pressue. You can join in at any time, and share with the groups or simply enjoy working with the prompts.

I found this week's prompt to be a challenge. Usually, I start getting visuals and ideas immediately, but nothing popped up this time. That's why I love this technique that I learned from Pam Carriker's 'Creating Art at the Speed of Life'.

You just write words in different ways, different colors, and different directions. You draw boxes around them (or shade to give a brick effect as I did with this one) and Voilà! The words become elements of art. You don't have to worry about drawing or need a lot of fancy products. You just need a theme (Art f…